The Case of the Feuding Faculty
by jocante
Summary: An all-OC fic set in the Wrightverse. A university professor was murdered, and his rival isn't making it easy to defend her. Of course, when is this job ever easy? Very much a work in progress; if I contradict myself, please let me know.


Ace Attorney: Northern Circuit

The Case of the Feuding Faculty

Part One: Publish and Perish

_5:15 PM, October 13_

_Francis N. Stein Memorial Building_

_Outside Seattle, Washington_

With perfect dramatic timing, lightning hit somewhere behind Forrester University's science building as rain began to pour and students on the lawn scattered, grabbing the equipment the class demonstration had used. The building was empty for the most part, since it was past the time most other classes had ended; there was still a light on in the animal lab, and the blackbirds in cages inside flapped and squawked in a state of panic.

"Hello?" A student in an oversized striped hoodie had just gotten a response to his phone call. "I..I want to report something…" He looked back through the panel in the door, watching a pair of snakes slither through the spreading bloodstain on the floor.

***

_9:15 AM, October 15_

_Defense Lobby 2, Seattle Justice Complex_

"Well, I'm sorry," said Professor Anna Honda, folding her arms obstinately, "but I thought the police force would have some degree of competence and recognize I hadn't killed Rivers, or I'd have called you people sooner." She was all of four foot nine, not counting her hair, which was bright green and stuck out in all directions, as if it had been styled by a van de Graaf generator. "Did you still have time to prepare?"

"I've got all the files released so far and I think I know the points in your alibi that will be used against you," Claire Bolt, a young associate with dark hair in pigtails and a bright, alert face, was just managing to look calm and competent, despite the short notice- Dr. Honda had only called the firm after visiting hours at the detention center had expired and the client interview had been a frantic one over the phone. "Uh, speaking of which, did you actually tell the police what you told me last night?"

The little professor sat down on one of the couches off to the side, by a potted plant, and half-smiled. "What, that my estimable colleague shouldn't have been allowed to teach grade school, let alone advanced ecology, and whoever got rid of him did a favor for the college?"

"Yes. That." Claire sat next to her, opening her portable court record (which looked a little like a small laptop; the one she'd been issued was an unprofessional, but cheery, yellow) and clicking on the autopsy report to get it open.

"Maybe not in those words but I hope I conveyed the spirit of them." Dr. Honda shrugged. "Oh, really. If any investigation at all had been done, the police would have found out that was what I thought. Next you're going to tell me I shouldn't have asked that man from Homicide if I could have the skull…where did your boss go, anyway?"

"Mr. Lefevre should be here shortly- he said he had to pick something up first downstairs," Claire explained, hoping her client wouldn't display quite so much efficiency during the trial. She also hoped Gabriel Lefevre hadn't gotten lost- the new Seattle Justice Complex, which had started holding official court sessions only a week ago, was indeed, well, complex. For some reason known only to the architect, and possibly to the voices in the architect's head, Courtroom 2 and the associated lobby were all the way on the other side of the building from the other three courtrooms, and Claire had had to go over part of the parking lot on a glassed-in pedestrian bridge, through a door marked FIRE EXIT for some unaccountable reason.

The screen on the portable court record blinked helpfully as the autopsy report scrolled.

_**Time of Death: **__Body temperature, rigor and livor mortis, and stomach contents approximate the time of death between 3:45 and 5:45 PM on 10/13._

_**Immediate Cause of Death: **__Blood loss from aforementioned stab wounds. Eight of the thirteen (marked on the diagram above) could have been fatal individually._

"I'd make a joke about academic backstabbing here, but you've probably heard all of them by this point," drawled a voice behind Claire, who jumped, startled, and looked up to see Mr. Lefevre leaning on the back of the couch, reading over her shoulder. Lefevre could be unnerving when it suited him- tall and grey and gaunt, with sharp features and unvaryingly black suits- and today he was especially so, since he'd informed Claire that he thought he'd write up a performance review of her work.

Claire tried to sound offhand. "So, uh, did you have any problems finding the courtroom?"

"Not really, it seemed straightforward enough, eh?" Lefevre asked, taking a drink of his coffee- apparently the item he'd made a detour for. "Have there been any new developments?"

"No, sir, although I haven't heard the prosecutor's name before."

Lefevre considered that and chuckled dryly. "You must be dealing with one of Prosecutor Salem's new hires, eh. That said, Dr. Honda. Will you be taking the stand?"

"I hope not," Dr. Honda looked up from inspecting the potted plant. "I've already recounted what I had to say more times than I care to."

Claire noticed that Lefevre looked relieved. "I submitted your statement as part of the record, so you shouldn't be called on," she said.

"Good. Now, if I could get some work done while this was going on- why Homicide needs a stack of animal behavior midterms, I will never know."

For a second Claire flashed back to freshman biology at Forrester, and Honda standing on a box as she lectured the class. Perhaps fortunately, though, Honda didn't appear to remember students all that well if they hadn't gone on to major in her field.

"Don't let it bother you. Consider your court experience an opportunity for further study of reptilian behavior. Shall we go, Miss Bolt?"

"Of course." Claire checked her watch, folded up the portable court record, and headed into Courtroom 2.

***

Chief Prosecutor Salem's exact reasons for firing two of her subordinates several months back had been obscure, but the media had enjoyed speculating, particularly since both men had dropped off the radar afterwards and refused to discuss the situation. Their vacant positions had been filled later with little problem, with one of the new prosecutors being a Mr. Stephen Monk, a shaven-headed, square-faced type who was glancing off and on at the clerk of court's attempts at setting up wireless connections between the portable court records and the giant overhead screen in the back next to the witness stand, which was currently displaying a wobbly floor plan of the Stein Building. Mainly, he seemed to be concentrating on a manila folder in front of him, but it took a few seconds for Claire to notice that, because she'd almost been blinded by his outfit- saffron yellow sport coat over one of those Hawaiian shirts with pineapples all over it, plus red tie, apparently thrown on in a token deference to the system. She was no sartorial genius (hey, her own suit had come from eBay), but Claire had been fairly certain that human beings didn't actually _wear _things like that, that they were just things excavated from one's closet years later and then thrown into the Salvation Army bin in a fit of embarrassment.

She was also fairly certain that Lefevre had bristled on sight of the man, and that it wasn't a reaction to that shirt. When she looked back at him, though, he'd recovered his composure, simply asked "High-tech, eh?" and slouched into the seat on the other side of Claire, digging a pad of paper out of his briefcase. " 'Morning, Your Honor." Claire noticed, to her chagrin, what he was writing: _Performance Review- Junior Associate, Murder Trial._

The Honorable Judge David Sun just looked bored, nodded to him, then kept watching the screen. "Is the prosecution ready?"

"Yeah." Monk put his folder down on the bench and signaled to the clerk to stop fiddling with settings when the lines on the floor plan were finally at the correct resolution. The courtroom, like the rest of the building, was very modern-looking, with clean lines, white walls, and square black chairs and tables; the crest with the scales of justice behind the judge's bench was even faintly abstract.

Claire smiled as brightly as she could manage. "The defense is ready, also." The smile faded as soon as she heard a "you'd better be" from the defendant's chair.

"…and from that I infer the defendant's present," said the judge, bringing down the gavel. "The case of State vs. Anna Honda is in session. Prosecutor, your opening statement?"

Monk nodded curtly. "So on October 13, Rufus Rivers was stabbed to death in the science building at the university where he worked. The police found evidence at the crime scene, which, along with witness testimony, proves decisively that the defendant is the killer, despite her claim to have been grading tests- in the same building- for the entire time the murder could have taken place."

Claire wished Honda had had an alibi more solid than that one, but wishing wouldn't help. Honda had said, both to her and to the police, that she had midterms that needed grading, and that she'd been grading them, which left her no time to stab people, and expected that to be enough.

"That's it. Oi, Marlowe, you're up," Monk finished, waving a betrenchcoated, broad-shouldered man over to the stand.

_Well, he's concise, _Claire thought. "No objections."

Her eyes narrowed as she looked Detective Raymond Marlowe over while he was being sworn in- primarily, she wondered why he was still wearing aviator sunglasses indoors and how he had managed to get a tan that was that close to being the same shade of orange as his hair. Her portable record began to glow green, with a little _testimony recording _symbol in the corner of the screen_. _

Marlowe raised an eyebrow at Monk, possibly over the summary introduction, and explained that he was going to be testifying about the particulars of the investigation "to find Forrester's…snake in the grass." With that, he looked over his sunglasses, then shoved them up onto his forehead, and Claire could have sworn she heard a music sting somewhere. She opened another file on the portable record- _Camping knife_.

"After receiving a call from Forrester University, I went out to that building…"

The image of a short utility knife with a stained blade rotated through Claire's field of vision.

***

It was still raining when the cruiser pulled up outside; Marlowe shoved the door open and picked his way around some damp and bedraggled chemistry students listening to the tail end of a lecture in the lobby. For a second he thought the blond kid in the hoodie was just trying to be cool by staying in the back, but the kid started pointing to a door marked 114- AUTHORIZED RESEARCHERS ONLY, clutching a phone with his other hand as if his life depended on it.

"In there. It's in there," said the kid.

Marlowe sighed and tried to get the door open, but it wouldn't move. "You wouldn't happen to have a…key to the situation, would you?" He didn't need one to be able to tell what had happened, because one look through the glass panel told him.

***

"Miss Bolt!" Lefevre hissed. "Pay some attention, eh?"

Claire's eyes widened as the world was suddenly back in color, and in the courtroom. _What __was__ that? Is it October 15 now? Trial day?_ She grabbed onto the last salient fact whatever it was had just shown her. "Uh…Hold it! You're absolutely sure the door was locked?" The image of the knife was no longer moving- just an ordinary series of shots from the crime lab. _Anna Honda- her name is even on the weapon, isn't it…just my luck._

Marlowe pulled his sunglasses back down, the better to peer over them at her. "It's not cross-examination yet. Don't jump the gun. She's right though, and I had to hunt through the building and find the…good doctor, who followed me back to the scene and gave me her key."

_Lab Key added to the Court Record._

"Where?" Monk asked.

"Where what?"

"Where was the defendant?"

"Her office. Hey, mark it up there on the map." Marlowe poked the clerk of court in the back of the head. The clerk obliged, and a green ring encircled the office two down from the animal lab, on the west side of the building. The guy who designed the Stein Building was less imaginative than whoever had designed the Justice Complex; its layout was a simple T-shape, with a lobby at the south end of the crosspiece. The door to the animal lab, which the clerk drew a red ring around, was directly down the hall from the lobby. "Only people with business in the animal lab are allowed to have keys like this, according to maintenance. I got the door open and called for some of my people to come secure the scene, and the body. Inside we found this-"

Up came the image of the knife again, on the big screen, but this time nothing happened. "-left in the corpse. As you can see, it has the name of the defendant engraved on the handle."

"Objection! I really hope that wasn't your only reason for arresting my client, Detective. That would be a reasonable request for any engraving place to fill, and if my client's problem with the victim was really as obvious as I've been led to believe so far, using her name in an attempt to frame her would have occurred to anyone who wanted to kill Rivers." Claire pounded the desk for emphasis.

Monk folded his arms. Something in his stance made him look more like a bouncer than anything else. "Your client's fingerprints are on the weapon, and she's also admitted to owning it. Nice try."

Claire shot a dirty look at Honda, who shrugged and said, "I wondered where that had gotten to."

The image on the big screen was replaced by a shot of the inside of the animal lab, with the body sprawled on the floor, against some birdcages that lined the back wall. "This photo shows the scene of the crime as we originally found it," Marlowe explained.

"Wait a minute. Prosecutor, did the forensics lab explain those odd tracks in the back of the room near the back door?" The judge had leaned forward and was looking at some red tracery in front of the door next to the birdcages. "And why are there wood chips and glass on the floor?"

"Snakes," Monk replied.

"Why did it have to be snakes…" asked the judge, before noticing that Dr. Honda had something to say about that. "Defendant, that was a rhetorical question. No commentary, please. Continue, Mr. Monk."

"The defendant was keeping a few reptiles in the lab, including a small aquarium containing two snakes, and wood chips as a liner. Check the autopsy report."

Claire brought it back up. In addition to the injuries that actually caused death, Rivers had also suffered a blow to the back of the head, which, according to forensics, probably would have been sufficient to stun him while the murderer finished stabbing.

"After their cage was broken, the snakes got loose and slithered through the bloodstain before it dried, leaving the tracks," Monk explained flatly.

"Which explains why it's a bad idea…to try to housebreak your reptiles." Marlowe couldn't resist. "They were easy to round up, since they weren't poisonous, unlike most of the other snakes present."

"_Venomous!_" Dr. Honda snapped. She'd been looking increasingly annoyed ever since the snake tracks were mentioned. "The correct term is venomous, you ignorant mammal, and those snakes were valuable. You'd better have put them where they can't be hurt."

"Professor!" Claire tried to cut her off as the few gawkers in the audience started to murmur among themselves. _Valuable? How?_

"I try to cooperate with you people as honestly as I can, and not only do you throw _me_ into detention in some hole, but now I don't know what you've done with-"

The gavel came down. "Defendant. One more outburst like that and I'll find you in contempt."

Honda's shoulders slumped and she looked even smaller.

"You had her for freshman biology, you said?" Lefevre asked quietly.

Claire nodded. She remembered hating that class, but also still remembered more about vertebrate anatomy than she'd ever use. And the tests actually made law school essays look less scary.

Lefevre started writing again, his expression almost impossible to gauge.

"Finish up, Detective," said the judge. The court record resumed recording.

Marlowe sighed and took his sunglasses off to polish them on his sleeve. "All right. After collecting evidence and information from the school and people who were in the building, we found out about the longstanding…dislike between Honda and Rivers, and that in addition to having no alibi to speak of, Honda had access to the crime scene, thanks to her key, and incriminating evidence related to her in the lab itself. There were also no other faculty members in the building at the time who had a key to the animal lab." Since his shades were now sufficiently shiny, the detective put them back on. "You could say the arrest was…hardly experimental."

"Defense?" Monk lifted his jaw a bit.

"Detective? If there were no other faculty members in the building with keys to the lab, how did Rivers get in? Did he have a key?" Sometimes, a good part of her job was just to be annoying.

"Yeah, he did."

"Where was it when you were looking for evidence? Was it found on him?"

"In his lab coat pocket."

Claire nodded. "All right…And you said you got a call that brought you out to the building. Who from?"

"A student. I guess you could say he found the body, although he was locked out of the lab at the time- there's a panel in the door that he saw it through."

"Mr. Monk. Do you have this student listed as a witness?" asked the judge.

"Yeah."

Claire continued, deciding that it would be freaky if the witness did in fact arrive wearing a giant hoodie. "Was the 'incriminating evidence' just the knife? Were there other things present to link my client to the murder?"

"I'm glad you asked me that.", said Marlowe, and the clerk of court got poked in the back of the head again. "Hey, bring up the magazine."

_I just have to mention these things, don't I, _Claire thought.

_The Slither: Journal of Research Involving Snakes and Other Squamates of the Pacific Northwest, Fall Issue added to the Court Record. Name of evidence changed: Thirty seconds ago, to "Magazine". Reason: Clerk of court didn't want to type actual title more than once in records._

"This was found during the search of Honda's office. Have a look." Marlowe smiled, and Claire couldn't tell whether she liked that or not.

It had arrived on the eleventh. Claire scrolled through her copy of the file and saw, in the table of contents, "Rediscovery of Stephens' kingsnake after presumed extinction; implications for possible recovery of other endangered snake populations". Not her usual reading material by any means, but it was the author's name that caught her attention. _Dr. Rufus Rivers, Forrester University, Seattle, Washington. _"The victim wrote this?"

"And your client added some commentary. She seemed to hold…sharp opinions."

Claire's eyebrow went up when she saw that Rivers' article had been annotated in the same way Honda wrote corrections and opinions in the margins of her students' tests; the notes were hardly complimentary, and one showed up repeatedly, a scratched _Seen this before. _The final marginal note read simply, _Will talk to Rivers this week._

"It's exciting reading, Detective, but I don't see how not liking the victim's writing could have compelled my client to kill him. I move that this be struck from the record as irrelevant, unless it can be proved that the article directly motivated the murder."

"You've forgot that the victim studied _birds. _In a lab." Seeing that this wasn't getting much of a reaction on its own, Monk glowered and found himself forced to elaborate. "It's funny, isn't it, he'd make the jump from studying the behavior of blackbirds under controlled conditions to going out in the woods to find a new population of a snake that hadn't been seen since 1953."

_Yeah, rub it in, you had time to read the article, _Claire could glare too when she felt like it. "Maybe he had a side interest. Stranger things have happened."

"In that case, it's funny that there happened to be a herpetologist using space right next to where he worked- with an aquarium that contained 'valuable' Stephens' kingsnakes." Monk hadn't changed his tone any but seemed to have a fine sense of drama all the same, as the picture of the snake in the article popped up on the overhead, next to a good, clear lab photo of a pair of snakes- all three were black, with bands of red, then white, then yellow and red again, spaced evenly. "He might have even gotten some inspiration."

Claire glanced uneasily at her client again, who was trying to choke down a fresh wave of venom. _What the heck is this guy trying to do, get an in-court breakdown out of her? _"Objection! Conjecture doesn't get more baseless than that, Mr. Monk, and so far you haven't even proven it's relevant."

"The article proves that Honda not only had an iron reason to want to get rid of the victim after reading the article, but that she was actively _planning_ to confront the victim during the week of the eleventh, when he was killed!" Monk slammed a fist down on the bench.

"Hold it! The notes only say that Dr. Honda wished to speak to Rivers, nothing about smacking an aquarium into his head. And since Rivers was originally hit in the _back_ of the head before being stabbed, his assailant doesn't seem to have had a lot of interest in conversing."

"The counsel has a-" started the judge. He shifted forward, then sighed when he realized he would never get to finish that sentence.

"Detective, were my client's fingerprints on that aquarium at all?" Claire demanded, pointing in her very best dramatic fashion. Monk had turned to Honda as if he was waiting for something- some kind of admission?- and that made Claire angry.

"They were not," Marlowe allowed. "Someone seemed to have…cleaned the slate."

"And that," said Claire, forging ahead to wipe that expectant look off Monk's face, "is a problem. For you. Take that!" She hit a few buttons on the Record, causing the knife's image to appear on the overhead again. Off to the side, Lefevre was leaning over toward the defendant's chair, but whatever he was saying didn't seem to be making much difference.

The judge raised an eyebrow. "Where I'm going with this, your honor," Claire continued, "is that the detective, and Mr. Monk, also said that my client's fingerprints _were_ on the other murder weapon, the knife. Do you really think it's reasonable that the killer would have left prints on one but not the other, especially with almost no window of time, as presented in the autopsy report, between the, uh, use of the aquarium and the stabbing?"

"She owns that knife," Monk turned to look at Claire instead, significantly less intimidated than she thought he might be. "That's why it has prints on it and the other doesn't; the prints on the knife are from another time she was using it. It's not an issue."

"Yes, but-"

And that was when Dr. Honda started telling the court exactly what she thought, and especially about what she thought of his idea that Rivers must have plagiarized her work to write the article. Claire groaned as a few of the gawkers joined in, most on completely different issues- a couple of people in the back had "Stop Whale Fishing" signs.

The judge went for his gavel again and called for order. "That's it. Defendant, you're in contempt. Get her out of here, I warned you."

The courtroom guards came forward and dragged the professor out mid-rant (Claire swore she heard something like "you fools! I'll show you all!"). "And Detective, if you make a 'mad scientist' joke, you're next. Lefevre, I know you're thinking of one too, so don't even try."

"Got it, your honor." Marlowe mock-saluted. Lefevre sighed.

"Counsel?" The judge looked over at Claire- it was one of those looks that suggested she'd better not have any more questions.

"Uh, I think that was it. Sir."

"The witness may step down. Prosecutor. You said something about another witness. When we return from recess, I want to hear what he has to say. Clear?" The judge got a mumbled affirmative out of Monk, then continued. "And you'll strike that article from the record as irrelevant, on the grounds that you already proved motive about a scene ago, and the rest is psychological theory. Is your witness here?"

"Yeah." Monk straightened his jacket and pulled at his tie as if he really wanted to ditch them both.

Despite the fact that her client was now persona most definitely non grata, Claire couldn't help looking smug. _I could not have put that better myself. Thanks, Your Honor!_

"Good. This court's in recess for the next thirty minutes. Clear the court, all of you."

* **

Lefevre had blithely ignored Claire's question about how she was doing and drifted away to talk to the protesters who'd been in the back of the courtroom. A large round woman with a band shirt promptly enveloped him in a bonecrunching hug. "Ow! I only have one spine, eh?"

Claire shook her head and figured that she had enough time to get downstairs to the detention center; there were a few things she needed to make sure she knew the full story about. If she hurried, that is. _Portable record…check. Questions…check._

With a final _Let's go! _to herself, she was off.

_Court Record- State vs. Honda_

_Profiles_

_Claire Bolt (23)- Me. I'm a lawyer, and not nervous at all. Nope._

_Gabriel Lefevre (59)- Observing my skills today. A good boss, even if he does have a sick sense of humor._

_Anna Honda (45)- My client. A biology professor who might be a little too blunt. Probably won't be let back into court._

_Rufus Rivers (37)- The victim, a professor who had been doing research on birds._

_Raymond Marlowe (35)- The detective in charge of this case. Has an endless supply of one-liners._

_Stephen Monk (Who knows?)- A man of mystery, recently hired by the Chief Prosecutor. _

_Evidence_

_Attorney's Badge- It's a badge, I guess._

_PCR- Portable Court Record. All evidence and profiles are registered in a list here._

_Autopsy Report- Dr. Rivers' autopsy report. He was bashed over the head with a glass tank and then stabbed thirteen times._

_Floor Plan- Floor plan of the Stein Building. Has relevant places marked._

_Lab Key- Copies of these are only given to people with business in the animal lab. _

_Camping Knife- Found in the body. Belongs to my client. _

_Broken Aquarium- Was used to bash Rivers over the head. Contained two harmless snakes. (now proven to be Stephens' kingsnakes)_

_Magazine- The mailing label says it arrived on the eleventh, and it has notes in Honda's handwriting on an article by Rivers, on the Stephens' kingsnake. (No longer considered evidence. Still in Record as an artifact file.)_

_Stack of Midterms- Confiscated from Honda's desk._


End file.
